Christmas

I hope everyone had a great holiday......how much snow has there been in the midwest? I've been watching the news out here and i must say i am a little jealous! All that snow? Are you kidding?!??! It has been getting a little cold over here (no snow though....fingers crossed!!), not as bad as there im sure but for a desert, after experiencing temps of 145 for 3 months straight it has dipped to about 40 degrees every night....kinda significant....its all relative.

So I dont remember if i told everyone that I have been on a company flag football team out here.....we had a 12-1 season record over 2 months and then came the playoffs. In two days we played in 4 games, part of a double elimination playoff. Our one loss of the regular season came against a Signal Corp company. Well, our first two games of the playoffs we won no problem but in the championship game, we were headed against the Signal Corp team again. We lost by 1 point and had to play them again 30min later (we had not lost the required 2 games to be knocked out of the tournament so we had to play them again as they had already lost a game).....we lost the second game by 2 points. So for Camp Arifjan, our team took 2nd Place. However, because we were in the top two of our Camp, we were entered into a weekend tournament to play against other Base's top two teams to lay claim to champion of Kuwait. Again, we won our first two games the very day after we took second place in the playoffs and then had to go up against the Signal Corp team AGAIN. We beat them and were on our way to the Kuwait Championship Game......however, since it was a double elimination tournament and we handed the Signal Corp their only loss of this tournament, and since they won the rest of their games, who do you think we played against for the Kuwait championship? The Signal team. Again. We lost the first game against them, again.....6-7......we could have won but our attempt for a 2-point conversion was unsuccessful......so since that was our first loss of the tournament, we had to play them again......30 min after the game we just loss......soooooooo after playing 8 games in 4 days already, we had to gear up for one more.....mind you these last 3 games had taken place during Sunday afternoon.....no big deal right? Not exactly. Let me explain......i work the night shift......so I sleep during daylight hours.....which is when we were playing....so i got off work, got two hours of sleep, played in 3 football games and then went back to work....slightly tired.....

anyway, back to the final game, the championship game for all bragging rights in Kuwait.....against the Signal Corp who we had a losing record of 3-2 against them......we started off sluggish and by halftime, they were winning 12-0. We started the second half with the ball and our quarterback threw an interception. Not looking good. But on their 2nd play, i intercepted a pass/pitch (the ball was barely a foot off the ground) and took it in for a touchdown. The game changed and from that point on, it was all us. We still had our troubles but by the end of the game, the score was 21-12, we pulled it off. Kuwait Champions. At the end of the game, the team presented me with the game ball saying I made the "Pontiac Game Changing Play", that they didnt want to play at the beginning of the second half, but that the interception sparked them to get back into it. It was a great game, and I was SORE....seriously, 9 games in 4 days......it took me a good minute to get out of my chair at work, and another minute to walk the 10 feet to the fridge to grab a water....but since we won, its a good sore. It was a lot of fun and it was awesome to hear the guys talk the whole bus ride back about how we came back and won. I'm still trying to get the photos from the game so when I do I'll send them to you all.

enough about football, im sure you all get enough of it back there already!! I ran another 5k this morning after getting off shift, Rudolph's Revenge 5k Run....I placed in the top 20 out of some 3-400 runners. Started off pretty good, felt good, was just about a hundred feet off the pace truck the first 1-2k but i plateaued and dropped a few spots the rest of the run. It was good though, got a better t-shirt with this run than the Turkey Trot (this one had a picture of Rudolph in a sled that Santa was pulling, The Turkey Trot was a polo that was basically just leftovers from a ribbon cutting ceremony for a local bank that opened....whohooo).

Got some new news......I don't remember if I had talked about some changes that are being made within my Battalion in the coming month. Well, there are some possible shifting within different sections of HHD Company. From the sound of things there will be some shifting within our shops, I have known since September that I might be moved out of S3 (Operations) where I am now and into S1 (Personnel) or S2 (Intel) or S4 (Supply) or to a line platoon that is struggling to help strengthen it and lastly, and this is something brand new as of last week......I might take over as HHD Commander. My Batallion XO (Executive Officer, 2nd in Command of my Batallion) took me aside last week and said that he wants me to think about taking the Command position starting in mid-January. Every senior ranking officer I’ve known has always told me that whenever the chance to take over a command of any kind comes up, to take it….im not going to lie im a little nervous but this is a pretty big opportunity and as one of my NCOs said to me last week “I know for a fact that there are lots of Captains in this Battalion and to have the Battalion XO ask you to consider taking this position is an honor and especially since you just pinned 1LT, it goes to show that they know you’re capable of doing a good job.” Basically I am a little excited for and worried about taking the chance at this command. It would be great for my career but at the same time I just got settled down into the position I am in currently, id hate to up and leave my section which has been a common trend over the last year for me already (being Platoon leader at my first unit for a month, then put to be XO for the next 5-6months, then shuffled to my current job for the last 7months), I keep feeling like im abandoning the people I work with every time….so im not sure how its going to go.....we'll see.

So all in all, its been yet another good month. I had a box full of gifts that i brought in to work tonight, gave them to my guys and told them to all go home, take the night off......so thats where things are right now.....scary to think that its almost 2009 and that just a year ago I had just started my military career with my first unit and was driving down to Chapel Hill, NC to visit Cathy, Mike, Nicole and the girls.

It was nice talking to everyone that I was able to call on Christmas Eve and Day.....if I didnt talk with you directly, I'm sorry.....Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is in good health and enjoyed the holidays with friends and family.